A Secret Well Kept
by LERDM
Summary: The turtles decides to use the technology that they used to get into Mikey's head to get to know each other better. This seems like a good idea at first, but when they discover that Leo has been keeping a terrible secret from them, the family may never see themselves in the same way again. Leo x Oc, 2012 series but will feature arcs from the 2003 series like the Ninja Tribunal.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One - A reluctant beginning

* * *

All of the brothers woke up from the induced coma that professor Honeycutt's mind-melding machine had put them in so that they could save Mikey's mind from being erased. They all hugged in relief that their brother was still very much himself.

"Hey! I just had a great idea!" Mikey announced. Everyone groaned, because the all knew that Mikey's ideas are just the _greatest._ "Hey! It is a good idea!" he argued with them, arms crossed in a comical way.

"Well... come on, spill the beans" Raph goaded him.

"Okay... what if we all went inside each others minds? Because, I mean, you know, it's not fair that you all got to be inside my head, right?" Mikey said to them all, Leo's eyes suddenly went wide.

"No, absolutely not" Leo said quickly and defensively, and all eyes turned to him. He realized the mistake he had made when he saw Raph's smirking face.

"Alright Mikey, I'm in" Raph said smirking at Leo, "I want to know what Fearless is so afraid of. Leo didn't respond, but he narrowed his eyes at him.

"Well, if you want my opinion, I think it's a splendid idea. Not only will you improve your team, but as a family, you may only benefit" Professor Honeycutt said to them all. They all looked back to Leo, as if wanting some response.

"No one is going to benefit from the things I am 'hiding' in my head" Leo said, and put air quotations around the word hiding.

"Well, Donnie, I think it's up to you" Raph said smirking.

"Uh... Leo can I talk to you in private for a second" Donnie asked, Leo nodded, and they walked into one of the ships corners. Donnie leaned in closer to Leo, "So, how bad is it?" he asked.

Leo furrowed his brows, "That implies I am trying to hide something" Leo replied vaguely.

"Stop playing with me Leo, your previous actions have proved that you know something that you don't want to share with your family. I respect that, but if it's something that's going to come back and bite us in the shell, we need to know" Donnie tried to convince Leo. After a moment of deliberation from Leo, Donnie got an answer.

"It's bad. But not to any of you, it's long over, long gone. It's never coming back" Leo responded, and Donnie couldn't tell if the glint in his eyes were from tears or happiness of reliving a memory.

"On a scale of one to ten, if we see this, how badly will it negatively effect us all?" Donnie asked him.

"A 9" Leo answered quickly.

"Okay" Donnie said unsurely. "Can you send Raph over here please?" he asked Leo.

"Yeah sure Donnie" Leo said, nervously. As he walked back to the group, Raph went over to talk to the resident genius.

"What'sup Donnie?" Raph asked.

"What do you think the chances are that going into each others heads is going to hurt someone?" Donnie asked him.

"I dunnow Donnie, you're the genius, figure it out" Raph responded.

"If I went inside your head right now, and saw something you didn't want me to see, on a scale of one to ten, how much would that negatively effect us all?" Donnie asked him.

"Umm... maybe a 4?" Raph said. Donnie rubbed his mouth with his hand and sighed. "What did Leo say?" Raph asked him.

"9" Donnie responded.

"9? Holy shell, what could be that bad?" Raph asked Donnie, "We need to know, maybe not even for our sake, for his" Raph said as they both turned and looked at Leo.

"Alright!" Donnie announced as him and Raph rejoined the group. "We will go into all of our heads - turtles only guys, sorry" Donnie added quickly to April and Casey who slumped their shoulders in disappointment. "But Leo will go last" Donnie finished. Everyone nodded in agreement, even Leo, which surprised Donnie, 'Maybe,' Donnie thought, 'he realized that it wasn't that bad after all'. Little did Donnie know he was very wrong.

"Alright! Let's get you hooked up to these things" Honeycutt said enthusiastically. He helped the turtles get the headset on. "Who's first?" Honeycutt asked Donatello.

"Raph" He responded.

"Here we go! Good luck turtles!" Honeycutt said to them as they drifted off into Raphael's subconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors Note: Thanks for all the reads so far! Please review, it motivates me to write faster!

* * *

Chapter Two: A rough start

They all awoke in a big red box, or at least, that's what it seemed like. There were four closed windows, and one large door, over the first window it said 1, over the second 2, and so on until it got to the big door. Over the door was written 'Angry Raph' in all caps. Mikey, Donnie and Leo had all spread out over the room, and Leo approached the window marked 1. He slowly pulled back the curtain that covered it, and realized he was watching a scene from their childhood.

"Hey guys, come look at this" Leo told Donnie and Mikey.

"Whoa, that's us!" Mikey exclaimed. They all fell silent as they watched the memory.

"I remember this..." Leo said. In the memory, Raph and Leo were in the living area alone, and Raph approached Leo who was practicing with wooden swords.

"Hey Weo?" Raph asked Leo.

"Yeah?" Leo responded, stopping his practice.

"Can we go out in da sewers? Raph asked him hesitantly.

"No Raph, it's too dangerous" Leo responded, but he frowned when he saw the disappointment on Raph's face, "Maybe you can ask Master Splinter when he gets back with Mikey and Donnie" Leo suggested.

"I wanna go NOW!" Raph shouted and began to run out of the lair.

"Raph wait!" Leo shouted and raced after him. He ran out of the entrance to the lair and looked around to see which way Raph had gone.

Mikey interrupted the memory, "When was this?" he asked confused, Donnie and Leo seemed to remember it.

"I think this is when Leo dislocated his shoulder" Donnie responded. They continued to watch in silence as Leo chased Raph through the sewers, but their eyes widened in horror as they watched Raph fall off a steep ledge that lead to a churning pit of water, it was at least 100 feet down. The young Leo saw this and dove over the edge, and grabbed Raph's wrist and as he grabbed the ledge. Mikey, but especially Donnie watched in horror as the force of both young Leo and Raph was put onto Leo's shoulder, and it was wrenched from it's socket. Little Leo didn't make a sound though, but just gripped the wall tighter.

"Weo...I'm scared" Raph told him.

"It'll um... it'll be fine. I'm just going to swing you up back onto the ledge okay?" Leo told him with his eyes tearing up in pain. He started to swing from side to side. "When I say let go you have to let go okay?" Leo asked Raph.

"Okay Weo" Raph said more happily, because he was enjoying being swung from side to side. He didn't notice however, that Leo was losing his grip.

"Let go!" Leo shouted as Raph let go of his hand, and landed safely on the ground, while Leo couldn't hold on with his arm anymore, and he started to fall.

"Weo!" Raph shouted from above. Leo reached down to his bel and grabbed a dagger, he plunged it into the surface of the rough rock, and he eventually slowed.

"Woah!" Donnie and Mikey gasped.

"This is what happened? Why didn't you ever tell us?!" Donnie asked current Leo.

"I never told anyone about this. Not even Master Splinter. I'm surprised that Raph actually remembers this, he was only like... 4" Leo told them. They continued to watch as Leo clawed his way back up to the ledge.

"Let's go home" little Leo said as they walked back to the lair. The memory began to fade, letting them know it was over. Mikey ran over to Leo and hugged him.

"Don't ever do that again bro" Mikey told him. Leo chuckled.

"Okay Mikey" Leo responded as he pulled away. They all walked towards the next window, and they pulled away the curtain, this time, it wasn't a memory, it was a picture, a picture that didn't exist. They were all in the lair, Professor Honeycutt was talking to Donatello, Master Splinter and Leo were meditating, Raph, Casey and Mona Lisa were playing pinball and Mikey was watching TV with April who was doing homework.

Donnie, Mikey and Leo all smiled a sad smile, things could never be this way if they didn't stop the triceratons from destroying Earth. They all moved to the next window, the one labelled 3. They pushed open the curtain and two memories began at the same time, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left showed an unconscious Leo being thrown through April's window, and the one on the right showed Donnie, Mikey, April and Raph watching the technodrome sink. Leo stepped closer to the window as he watched what his brothers thought was his death. He turned around and looked at Donnie and Mikey, their eyes were misty as they remembered the times they had thought he was dead. He walked over to them and hugged them.

"I'm sorry you guys" Leo said to them. They all stepped back and went over to the last window labeled 4. Leo opened the curtains, and they found themselves watching the first time Raph and Mona kissed.

"Eww! Nasty bro!" Mikey exclaimed as he quickly shut the curtains.

They found themselves looking down the door that was labeled Angry Raph.

"You think we need to go in there?" Donnie asked them.

"Yeah, we do." Leo responded and opened the doors. Inside the room there were five podiums, on the first one there was a cockroach. On the second, there was the Shredder's helmet, on the next one there was one of Leo's katanas. Leo paused at this, was Raph afraid of him? On the next one there was an image of the Earth being sucked up by a black hole, and on the last one was a Krang.

"Huh" Donnie said, "It seems like these are all things he is afraid of, not things that make him angry".

"He hates being afraid" Leo said. All of the sudden, they were ejected from his mind, and plunged back into reality.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - Enter the Donatello

* * *

The turtles woke up from Raph's mind, and the first thing Leo did was hug Raph.

"I'm sorry bro" Leo said to Raph.

Raph pushed him off, "Yeah, yeah. I would have done the same for any of you, but I guess I just don't like feeling helpless" Raph said.

"Alright! Donatello, you're up next! Ready?" Professor Honeycutt asked them. Donnie nodded, and they were plunged back into darkness as they entered Donatello's mind.

* * *

The turtles woke up on a road in the middle of a busy street in a giant city with skyscrapers and spaceships. The cars swerved around them, but everything was orderly and seemed perfect. One hover car stopped beside them, and a robot popped his head out of the window.

"If you gentleman want a ride to Donatello tower, I would be pleased to oblige" He spoke with a British accent.

"Yes, thank you sir" Leo responded as they piled into the back of the car. It raced off into the vast skyline of skyscrapers, the car twisted and turned, and it finally arrived at the largest building in the city. The turtles thanked the driver and got out of the car. They walked into the building, and were directed to an elevator by the receptionist, which was April. They stepped into the elevator and saw almost 50 buttons, all labeled with different parts of Donnie's personality. One was named Donnie - Physics, Donnie - Angry, but Mikey called out when he found one he thought they should go to, and it was labeled Donnie - Prime.

"Hey guys, look. This one says Donnie Prime!" Mikey said as he pushed the button. The elevator began to move up and up and up until they reached the highest floor, where the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Inside there's a huge lab with Donatello in the center of it.

"Oh hey guys!" Donatello exclaimed while knocking something over. "Oops" He said as he noticed the now broken vial on the floor.

"Hey Donnie" Leo said as he walked further into the room and looked around. "So, what are you working on?" he asked.

"Well, where do I start? I'm trying to get caught up on the 3,000 years of physics that have been introduced to me, but I'm also working on a side project" Donnie told him.

"What's the side project?" Leo asked.

"Well, statistically speaking, at least one of us should be dead by now, and the fact that none of us are is troubling" Donnie told him.

"Why is it troubling? Isn't that a good thing?" Leo asked him, confused.

"Well, not necessarily. If you look at all the times, especially you Leo, that we should have died, that means that in an alternate time stream, we did die. And the chance that we are the one and only time stream where no one dies is extremely unlikey, almost infinetly unlikely. The longer we live into our lives, the higher the risk of death. To be honest, I wasn't expecting all of us to get this far".

"But Donnie, people have died" Leo tried to reason with him.

"Really? Who?" Donnie asked them. "Because it seems to me that no one ever dies" Donnie spoke, but then quickly turned around to look at Leo, "Unless you happen to know someone who has died at the hands of our enemies?".

"People have died" Leo said, his eyes darkening.

"Who Leo?!" Donnie shouted, "Is that your big secret?!". Raph had had enough, and stepped in between them.

"That's enough you two!" Raph shouted out at them. "Stop arguing. If what Donnie is saying is true, then we should be grateful that we've had this much time together already, and we shouldn't waste any on pointless fights" Raph said.

"Oh! That's rich coming from you Raphael" Donnie said while chuckling to himself.

"Donnie, what's up with you bro?" Mikey asked, shocked by Donnie's actions. The Donatello they all knew and loved was never this... this blunt.

"Your mistake Michelangelo is thinking that I am _your_ Donatello. I am Donatello Prime, just one aspect of his personality" Donnie answered.

"Alright, alright... So uh Donatello Prime, how do we complete your mindscape or whateva?" Raph asked.

"I think the key to that is realizing that if your Donatello was more like me, then, let's just say, he wouldn't exactly be on your side" Donnie Prime told them, as the world around them became fuzzy, and they began to exit his mind. Leo thought about what Donatello Prime said, and he realized it was right. Donnie is timid, he follows instructions and he lacks confidence, but if he had the confidence he needed, he could question Leo's every order, over analyze Raph's emotional outbursts, try to rationalize why Mikey is so weird. He would tear the team apart, and he knew that, so he pushed that part of himself down, a part of Leo felt a swell of pride in knowing that Donnie cared so much about their family that he made a personality change on his own accord.

Leo could still remember when they were children, Donnie would mercilessly tease Raph and Mikey for calling Leo Weo, and he would constantly pick apart at Leo's technique. He did remember one day were he did change, when he stopped picking on everyone, and started to become a little more introverted, it was after a talk with Master Splinter about manners. Donnie learned a different lesson though, he learned the importance of family.

The turtles woke up from Donnie's head and at first no one said anything and they just stared at each other. Leo stood up and repositioned himself next to Donnie.

"Thank you for changing for us" Leo told him quietly so no one else could hear. Donnie nodded at him slowly and a huge smile went across his face.

"Sorry for what the other guy said" Donnie said to them all, but they all knew the comment was directed to Leo.

"Well, Leonardo... Are you ready?" Professor Honeycutt asked.

"Yeah, but just one thing. April and Casey should join us" Leo said. Everyone looked at him in shock as if to say 'wasn't he the one who didn't want anyone in his head?'. "I don't want to talk about it after, so it'll be easier if I just show you now. But you all have to promise me something" Leo spoke looking at each of them as they nodded. "Whatever happens in my mind stays there, we aren't going to talk about it after, got it?" Leo asked. Everyone nodded in agreement with his question except for Donnie.

"What if it's something we need to talk about?" Donnie asked everyone.

"Doesn't matter. I've been living with the things in here for years, I've moved on in my own way, I don't need to be reminded of what happened" Leo said, and they all looked at him concerned, "Do we have a deal? Everyone?" Leo asked for the last time. The rest of them looked at each other and after a moment all agreed.

"Here we go!" Professor Honeycutt said as they drifted away into the mind of Leonardo.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four - The beginning of a long path

* * *

Raph, Mikey, Donnie, April and Casey all woke up on cold damp cobblestones at what looked like the entrance to a stone maze. Above them, a thunderstorm is raging, but no rain falls, sometimes they can see an occasional lightning strike closer to the centre of the maze.

"Well this isn't sinister at all" Donnie said as they all looked around.

"Should we go in?" Mikey asked no one in particular.

"I guess so..." Raph said nervously as they began to enter the maze. Only a few steps in, they came to their first choice, left or right.

"Well, if we keep on left hand on the wall, and we follow it, we will eventually find our way out" Donnie told them.

"I don't think that's the point" April said.

"Yeah! We don't need Donnie's logic" Mikey exclaimed.

*A few minuets later they were hopelessly lost*

"Leo! We're lost! We need help" Mikey called out into the air. The thunderstorm thundered in response, and a bolt of lightning shot down to them as the disappeared, and reappeared in a different location. There was a huge stone archway, and on it was written 'Family'. They walked through the doorway and entered a large chamber where there were several large picture frames hung on the walls. They approached the closest frame and saw Mikey cooking in the kitchen, the next one was of Leo and Master Splinter. On the other wall, there was a picture of Raph and Casey fighting the Purple Dragons in an alleyway, and the last one was of Donnie and April in the lab.

"Who's this?" Casey asked from a different corner of the room. Everyone went over to where he was and saw that he was looking at a picture of Leo and a woman who none of them recognized.

"I don't know... I'm starting to think there is a lot of things we don't know about Leo" Donnie said, but just as he finished saying that, a doorway opened up behind them that lead to a different room. When they stepped into it, they found themselves on a rooftop in New York on a rainy night. They could see Leo about to jump from the roof they were on to another, but he suddenly stopped and became ridged.

"Who's there?" Leo called out into the shadows, pulling his katanas out of their sheaths and readying himself. The turtles looked around and couldn't see anything, but suddenly, a woman stepped from out of the shadows.

"I'm supposed to kill you" she spoke, and her voice was like silk and she was beautiful.

"You uh don't seem so sold on that idea" Leo said nervously looking around to see if there were any others.

"I'm not. And there's no one else, if that is what you're worried about" she said. "Not as if it would have mattered, I could do it myself".

Leo's eyes narrowed, "So what is it, are we going to fight or not?" Leo asked as they began to circle each other.

"That, Leonardo, is up to you" she said vaguely. Leo made the first move, but only within a matter of seconds, she had a blade up against his throat. "I suppose you should be happy that I am not my sister" she said as she lowered her katana.

"What's your name?" Leo asked her.

"Akirihai, but call me Kira" she responded an began to turn to leave. "I-I'm supposed to kill you and your entire family if I get the chance, but I won't, you have my word. All that I ask is that you never tell a soul you have met me". Leo nodded.

"Of course... Thank you" Leo said, Kira turned around confused.

"Thank me? For what?" she asked him.

"For not killing me, despite what my family often says, they do still need me" Leo told her.

"So then why are you out here?" Kira asked him.

"Because sometimes they don't understand the sacrifices I make for them" Leo said, thinking back to his and Raph's fight.

"Well, it's too dangerous to be out here alone, especially with Karai hunting you too, so if you ever need somewhere to go, 435 York Ave, the top apartment, the window is always unlocked" Kira told him and bowed. Just like she had appeared, she left just as mysteriously.

Suddenly, the observers found themselves standing in an empty room shocked at the encounter they just witnessed, behind them, a new path opened for them.

"That's the lady in the picture!" Casey exclaimed as they set off on their new path towards the center of the maze. The closer they got, the more intense the storm became, it felt as if they had walked miles and miles until they reached a dead end.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Raph asked no one in particular. Suddenly, the wall turned into something like a movie screen, and chairs popped up under them.

"Can I get some popcorn?" Mikey asked the storm, and all of the sudden a big bowl of buttered popcorn appeared in Mikey's lap. The 'screen' that he appeared on the wall began to play something.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five - An empty heart

* * *

Raph, Mikey, Donnie, April and Casey watched the makeshift screen on the wall, it started off with Leo and Raph arguing, and Leo storming out of the lair, Leo left the sewers and ran in a specific destination, it showed him enter an apartment through an unlocked window. He entered a brightly lit living room with simple furniture and a big TV.

"Hello?" a voice called from another room, it was Kira.

"It's me, Leonardo" Leo responded. Kira popped her head around a corner, she was wearing an apron.

"Want food?" she asked, "It's spaghetti" she wiggling her eyebrows funnily.

"Sure" Leo said as he walked into the kitchen, "I hope your cooking skills have improved since last time" Leo said smiling.

"Wow, hurtful. I burn one egg" she said smiling.

"Well, as I recall, it was more than burnt" Leo said smirking.

"Okay... so maybe it caught on fire, but that was your fault!" Kira exclaimed.

"My fault?" Leo asked.

"Yes, you were distracting me with your problems" Kira said.

"Well sorry my problems are so distracting" Leo said jokingly.

"Speaking of problems, what brings you here on this dreary night Leonardo?" Kira asked, stirring some sort of sauce.

"Well, apparently I can't see things from Raph's point of view" Leo told her.

"Do you?" she asked.

"Do I what?"

"Do you see things from his point of view?" Kira specified.

"I try to, but sometimes it's so hard" Leo said, "I'm a failure, I don't even know my own brother well enough to know what his point of view is".

"Well, if it matters at all to you, I don't think you're a failure. I think that you are a good man who is trying to do good by his family, and I think that you're doing the best you can. You can't be perfect Leo, and it seems to me that that is what they are expecting from you" Kira said as she placed one of her hands on his shoulder.

"They call me Fearless" Leo told her.

"Why?" Kira asked.

"Because they think I do not fear death" Leo told her.

"And do you?" she asked him.

"Only theirs" He responded, "And you?" he asked her.

"Not anymore" She told him as she put the spaghetti and the sauce on plates and gave one to him. "The Star Trek marathon is about to start on the space channel, you in?" Kira asked him.

"Yeah, that sounds good" Leo said as they sat on the couch.

*2 hours later*

Leo's phone started to buzz, he looked at the screen and saw it was Donnie calling him, he pressed ignore, but Kira glared at him.

"They're worried about you, you should go home Leo" she told him.

"I don't want to, not yet" Leo told her.

"Well it's obvious you have forgiven them, so why not?" she asked.

"Because this place is paradise, I don't have to be perfect or Fearless or anything else" Leo said.

Kira smiled widely, "Paradise isn't going anywhere, but if you lose your families trust you will regret it forever" Kira advised him.

"You're right, as always" Leo said as he stood up to leave, Kira grabbed his hand.

"You're always welcome here. Always" Kira told him. Leo slightly squeezed her hand and jumped out of her window into the rainy night.

The screen faded, and everyone was baffled.

"How did we not notice this?" Donnie muttered to himself.

"He would leave, go for a run, cool down, and then come back. That's what he always told us, he lied every time without blinking. How could he do that?!" Raph said, obviously upset. Mikey was oddly silent, and eventually, everyone seemed to notice it.

"What do you think Mikey?" Raph asked him.

"I think you should leave him alone. The things you guys said to him tore him apart, so much that he had to turn to a stranger for help. I'm glad he found someone he could talk to, but I'm sad that because of you, it wasn't me" Mikey said, and Donnie and Raph hung their heads in shame. Their thoughts were interrupted by the screen showing a new video, Mikey's popcorn was magically refilled, and everyone's seats forcibly turned back o face the screen.

It started with Leo entering Kira's apartment.

"Kira?" Leo called out.

"Leo..." Kira breathed out, so low that he barely heard it. I came from her bedroom, Leo raced over to the door, which was closed and locked.

"Kira, open the door" Leo said, becoming nervous.

"I um... I can't move... you're just uh going to have to break it" Kira said from inside, Leo could hear pain in her voice.

"Are you close to the door?" Leo asked her, but there was no response, becoming panicked, he kicked in the door and saw her laying on her back on her bed, wearing only a sports bra and some shorts. Leo slightly blushed, but his expression quickly changed when he looked at her right leg. There were three deep gashes on her upper thigh, they were obviously caused by her father, the Shredder.

"Leo, there's a numbing agent in the drawer over there, and sanitary thread and needles" Kira said shakily as she pointed to the top drawer of her black dresser. Leo opened it and saw an array of medical supplies, he grabbed what she said, but also rubbing alcohol and gauze. He went back over to her and injected a needle of numbing medicine into her leg, she slightly hissed at the pain, but otherwise kept quiet. He then poured some of the rubbing alcohol onto some of the gauze and cleaned the cuts with it, this time she did cry out in pain, and she gripped Leo's hand tightly. She let go when he picked up to needle to stitch up the cuts.

"Just take it easy Leo, I can't feel anything now, and you know I don't care about scars" Kira told him, trying to calm his shaking hand. She looked away as he did it, and it only took a few moments for him to finish.

"Done" he said as she looked up at him.

"Thanks Leo" she said.

"Why did you let him do this to you?" Leo asked her. "You're better than him, you would win in a fight".

"Because that's what he wants, he wants to provoke me into rage, he wants to turn me into the monster he raised me to be. I will not let him" Kira told him. "And I forgot to thank you for not hurting Karai the other day. She told me that she confronted you and your brothers" Kira added, her voice was dropping tiredly.

"Well, I've told my brothers that I have a huge crush on her, so I think they'll leave her alone for my sake" Leo told her, which made her laugh a little.

"Speaking of crushes... How's Donatello doing in his pursuit of April?" Kira asked Leo.

"Not great to be honest, she picked Casey over him, and he's been all mopey ever since. But I think it's for the best" Leo said.

"How is it for the best?" Kira asked him.

"Humans could never love us, not like that anyways" Leo said to her. Kira yawned and snuggled into her bed a little more.

"What do you think I am?" she said very softly as she drifted off to sleep, leaving a wide eyed Leo watching over her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six - Paradise lost

* * *

The viewing of Leo's memories of times spent with Kira went on for some time. They saw them become good friends, and then something more. However, what they did not know was that this tale had an unsavory ending. The memory they were watching now was one they all remembered, and one they all wished to forget. It was the night they fought the Kraang in the technodrome. They were watching from Leo's point of view, they could see themselves launch away from the technodrome without Leo, and they could see the bittersweet smile that took place on Leo's face. Leo turned away from the entrance to face Kraang Prime, they saw Leo lose his footing as the technodrome crashed into the ocean, he fell and then was grabbed by Kraang Prime's tentacle and thrown into the wall, he hit the back of his head and fell unconscious. From a different angle, it showed Kira standing on a dock watching the others exit the technodrome.

"Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, April, Casey... Where are you Leo? What are they looking at?" Kira muttered to herself as she followed their line of sight to the technodrome and her eyes went wide, "Leo!". Kira dove into the water and swan towards the technodrome, she made her way to a hole in the hull, and swam inside looking for Leo. She quickly found him floating in the debris, she swam over to him, and quickly brought him up to the surface. He wasn't waking up and Kira started to shake him.

"Leo! You need to wake up, there are people who need you. Your family needs you, I need you" Kira said desperately.

There was an agonizing moment of silence before Leo coughed up seawater and began to breath again. "Kira?" Leo asked groggily.

"Leo, your family is out there on a boat and they think you're dead, go to them" Kira told him.

"What about you? Are you okay?" Leo asked her.

"I'm fine, go" Kira told him as they swan out of the technodrome in different directions.

The screen blurred, and they were left to talk to themselves for a few minutes.

"I wanna meet this chick, we owe her everything. Why didn't Leo ever tell us about her?" Raph said, thinking out loud.

"He knew we wouldn't trust her, I mean look how we reacted when he said that he had a crush on Karai" Donnie said.

"Yeah, another lie he told us" Raph said, obviously hurt by all the deceit that was being unearthed. The screen started to being again, and it showed a familiar dark and stormy night, a night that would always haunt their memories as their greatest failure, the day the Kraang took New York.

The video started off with Leo and Donnie fighting about what the better course of action was, but they were interrupted by portals opening up in between them. Leo told the others to run while he lead the Kraang away through a different tunnel, as he was running he pulled out his phone and punched in a number. The phone rung, and a familiar voice, Kira, answered.

"Leo?" she asked.

"Kira, are you okay? You need to get out of the city" Leo told her.

"I'm fine, and you know full well that I can't leave. What's happening? Do you need help?" Kira asked, hearing the noises in the background.

"Umm, actually, a little help would be appreciated, I'm under 53rd, you know where that is?" Leo told her.

"Yep. I'm on my way, 2 minutes" Kira told him and then hung up. Leo was left to hold back nearly 30 Kraang bots by himself, he had managed to take down 10 of them when Kira appeared from the shadows, together they fought in perfect unison and made short work of the rest of the droids. They made their way topside, and at every turn, they were confronted by Foot bots that they destroyed. They tried to avoid encountering them, to try to not alert the Shredder to their presence.

They had hidden behind a building and Leo was just about to run ahead to destroy any bots in their way when she shot out her arm to stop him.

"Wait. Leo, there's something I want to tell you in light of the world ending." Kira said quietly, and Leo turned back to give his attention to her. "The two years since we've met have been the happiest times of my life, and I want you to know that I love you, and you don't have to-" Kira was cut off by Leo kissing her.

"I love you too" Leo said, but they went back to full alert as they both suddenly got the feeling that someone was watching them. More arrows and throwing stars were sent their way, all of which were meant to herd not hit, but they realized that too late, and soon found themselves in a trap. Foot bot attacked them at all angles, but it wasn't anything that they couldn't handle as they plowed through wave after wave, little did they know, they were being watched from a nearby rooftop.

"They fight bravely Master Shredder" Tigerclaw observed.

"They are young, overconfident, foolish, and worst of all, in love. We will use that to our advantage" Shredder said in response.

"Master, we should take no chances, we should end them here and now" Bradford said.

"Archers, Fire!" The Shredder ordered. And for the first time, they realized who was orchestrating this, however, they didn't have much time to think about it before they were assaulted by a barrage of arrows, Kira did a series of delicate maneuvers, flipping and jumping out of the way, while Leo took a more head on approach by slicing the arrows that got close to him. Unfortunately, Leo had missed one, but Kira spotted it in time, she ran over to him and pushed him out of the way, the arrow became embedded in the back of her shoulder, but she made no outward sign of pain. She quickly pulled it out and ran for cover beside Leo. When the rain of arrows stopped, they stood up and faced the Shredder.

"Stop hiding behind your Foot bots father!" Kira shouted.

"Come down here and face us yourself!" Leo shouted as well, but the Shredder just laughed.

"You're beneath me... Turtle" he spat, and then turned to Kira. "And you, you insolent brat. This is happening because of you, because you didn't protect your sister. And now you have the audacity to think you would get away with befriending, and even mating with this abomination!?" he roared at her. A chain suddenly whipped out from the shadows that wrapped around Leo's wrist, and pulled him to the wall, he couldn't escape. Kira held her ground as the Shredder, Tigerclaw, and Bradford aka Dogpound surrounded her. Dogpound made the first move and lunged at her, she easily fended him off, and slashed him across the chest, he was out. The Shredder stepped forward, and Kira turned to face him, however, she didn't see that Tigerclaw had a gun pointed at her back.

"Kira! Behind you!" Leo shouted out, in time to warn her, and in time for her to throw a dagger, but not enough for her to fully get out of the way. The blast hit her in almost the exact same spot that the arrow had hit her, and she crumpled in pain, the Shredder cackled wildly. Kira slowly pushed herself back up from off the ground, but she didn't worry about Tigerclaw anymore, she knew the dagger hit it's mark. She gripped her sword tightly in her good arm, and held the other close to her, trying to minimize pain by minimizing movement. Her and the Shredder danced around each other in a flurry of blades, and finally their swords locked. This was just what the Shredder had wanted, as he knew he was physically stronger than her. He put all of his weight onto her sword which was putting all the pressure on Kira's wrist, what happened next was inevitable.

Kira's wrist unnaturally bent backwards, followed by a sickening crack and Kira's scream. Leo shouted out to her, but no one heard what he had said. Kira quickly dropped her sword and rolled backwards, clutching her wrist tightly to her body, tears rolled down her cheeks and blurred her vision. She didn't see the punch headed for her, and it hit her square in the stomach. She fell onto her back and stayed down as the snow fell all around her, Leo was screaming and thrashing against his restraint as he watched the scene unfold. The Shredder slowly approached Kira who was just trying to get up, he kicked her in her chest, and she fell back down.

"I will end this now Akirihai, but tell me, how does it feel to know that the only person that loves you in this world is that pathetic creature over there?" The Shredder asked her as he leaned in for her response.

"I feel honored" she said weakly, but as she leaned her chin up closer to him, she head butted him in the face, breaking his nose, she smirked, but he was not impressed. The Shredder raised hid gauntlet over his head, and brought it down on her, Kira gasped in pain and shock as the three blades cut through he and hit the concrete on the other side.

"NO!" Leo screamed. Kira turned her head towards him, and mouthed 'I'm so sorry, I love you'. Blood trickled from her mouth and nose as her lungs filled up with it, and it only took a few moments for Kira to die. The rest of I was blurred red with rage, Leo's rage, the chain on his wrist finally broke free, and he ran at the Shredder and attacked him with everything he had, but the Shredder managed to get a hit on his knee that dislocated it, and also gave him a nasty gash across this chest. Leo was knocked unconscious, and they all knew the rest, he was thrown through the window of Aprils apartment, and they fled to the farmhouse, not knowing what had really occurred that day until now.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven - Waking up from a nightmare

* * *

Everyone slowly opened their eyes after waking up back in the ship, they saw that Leo wasn't actually there, and Professor Honeycutt said that he had woken up earlier than the rest of them and said he didn't want to be disturbed.

"How did we not notice?" Donnie said sadly, "We didn't notice that he was upset, we didn't notice he was hurt. We are the worst" Donnie said sullenly.

"Why did he lie to us?" Raph asked, still shocked. "When he woke up from that coma... he didn't say a thing, he lied about what happened".

Mikey was beginning to get angry at them and decided to seek out Leo's company. Donnie and Raph were so enthralled in their conversation that they didn't even notice him go. Mikey knew where he would find Leo, it was where he always went when he was stressed, the engine room. Sure enough, Mikey found him leaning against the railing looking down into the heart of the ship.

"Leo?" Mikey asked hesitantly as he approached.

"Hey Mikey" Leo said, he sounded tired, the kind of tired you only get when you are used so entirely up that you have nothing left and you only feel empty.

"I'm so sorry bro" Mikey said quietly.

"So am I" Leo said. There was a long silence, but then he spoke again "It's funny, I'm 19 years old, and I feel so old. It's like in movies where the bad things happen but the good guy wins, and you know that there isn't going to be anything more exciting and terrible than what you've seen already, so now you're just waiting for the movie to be over, but it never seems to end" Leo finished and looked at Mikey, his eyes were red and bloodshot.

"You can't think like that Leo" Mikey said, slightly disturbed by what he had just heard. "Things will get better".

"I have no doubt it'll be better than they are right now, but it won't get better than it was before" Leo said with that same tired tone.

"Dude, stop. What's the point of living of you don't have hope? By what you said, we may as well all kill ourselves now, because it's not going to be better than before, you're right about that" Mikey said, trying to knock some sense into Leo.

Leo seemed to think about this for a moment before responding, "Yeah, I guess your right. Thanks Mikey" Leo said as he put a hand on his shoulder. Together they walked back out onto the bridge of the ship, and all conversations that were going on stopped as they looked to their leader who had been harboring one of the saddest things April had ever seen. She ran up to him and embraced him, and everyone else followed until they were all part of the group hug.

* * *

A few months later

Time has passed in an uneasy peace, the turtles and April and Casey were happily distracted with getting the pieces of the black hole generator, it was one day of desperation that that peace was obliterated. It was they day that they learned of Professor Honeycutt's lies.

The turtles and April and Casey were reminiscing about the things they missed from Earth, and Casey and Mikey were celebrating that they would soon see the things they missed again.

"Guys, this isn't a celebration, we have one last shot to save Earth from the triceratons, or we won't have any home to go back to" Leo spoke, everyone immediately sobered up, and April felt especially bad. They were all talking abut their comforts, about the things they were most excited to see when they got home, but the thing, the person that brought Leo comfort, the person who he would be most excited to see was dead. Kira wouldn't be waiting in her apartment for Leo when they returned.

"Leo's right. We'll do whatever it takes to stop them, even if it means sacrificing our lives" Raph said the last part while making brief eye contact with Leo. The alien turtle on his shoulder seemed dismayed at that thought, so it made a distressed growling noise. Raph said something to it under his breath so no one could hear.

"We're going to go mad crazy on these alien freaks right?" Casey said, trying to get rid of the tension. Everyone voiced their agreement, and began to mentally prepare for the battle to come.

*A few minutes later*

They steadily began to approach Earth when Raphael thought of something the Fugitoid hadn't quite explained.

"So how are we supposed to destroy this thing?" He asked.

"There is a way, but the entire Heart of Darkness must be destroyed, not one piece of it can remain" The Professor replied, but April could tell that he knew more that he wasn't telling.

"What's wrong Professor? I can tell you aren't telling us something" April said as she turned to face the Professor, the others watched for the Professor's response.

The Professor made a sound that resembled a resigned sigh and turned so his back was to them, "My friends, I'm afraid I must made a confession. I was going to tell you once you got to know me more as a humanoid... ur android" He corrected as he paused.

"What are you talking about fugidude?" Casey asked, confused.

"Well, you see, it was not the Kraang that invented the black hole generator, it was I" The Professor said ashamedly.

"WHAT?!" Everyone else exclaimed in shock. They then turned to the Professor expecting some ort of explanation, so he told them why he had created it, and why he gave it to the Kraang. He hung his head in shame at his past actions.

"That is messed up yo" Casey said, disgusted.

"Fugitoid, how could you? You lied to us! Everything was a lie!" Leo said as he walked angrily towards the Professor. Donnie jumped onto him to stop him from making a terrible mistake.

"Oh yeah?! Sound familiar Leonardo?" Raph said, seething in rage, not only at the Fugitoid for lying, but also at Leo for pretending that he hadn't done something equally as bad.

"My lies never endangered any one of you!" Leo shouted, but then turned back to the Fugitoid, "His lies could have killed us all!" Leo finished, angry that Raph had brought up that sensitive subject.

"Hey! Hold up Leo, the Professor saved our lives countless times, he deserves a second chance" Donnie said, trying to reason with him.

"How can you say that?! Earth wouldn't have been destroyed! This crazy space chase wouldn't have happened! The Kraang wouldn't have invaded Earth and the Shredder would have killed her! If he hadn't built that stupid machine!" Leo shouted, and now they could all see why this meant so much to him. He knew that without the black hole generator, the Triceratons would have destroyed the Kraang long ago, and he knew that if the invasion had never happened, then that entire night would have never happened, and Kira would still be alive. They all paused for a moment in sadness for their brother, but they knew that the Fugitoid meant well.

"Calm down bro!" Mikey said as he stepped in between Leo and Professor Honeycutt. Leo was silent for a moment, but then stormed out of the room. Everyone looked on sadly, feeling that they had somehow failed Leo. The bridge continued to work in silence until they noticed the triceratons mothership up ahead. Then they looked around for Leo, since he was an extraordinary pilot, but they had not noticed that he never returned from wherever he had stormed off to before. April quickly found him on the security cameras.

"Leo's about to do something really stupid" April told the others.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight - The last stand

* * *

"Leo's about to do something really stupid" April said. The rest of them piled around her to see what he was doing, Leo was loading onto the scout ship.

"Leo! Don't do this bro! We need you up here!" Mikey tried to reason with him.

"Don't you guys get it, Fugitoid's just using us to get his black hole machine back" Leo said, knowing they could hear him over their comms. Leo pressed the ignition button, and the scout ship departed from the main ship.

"Leo, think rationally, you can't take down the mothership with a scout ship" Donnie said, trying to get him to stop.

"I know Donnie" Leo replied solemnly as he turned off the communications in the scout ship as raced off towards the mothership. Leo piloted through the enemy ships, destroying all of them in his path, he was thrown off course slightly by a built in defense mechanism, but he quickly stabilized the ship and headed for the dome of the mothership. He thought that he had destroyed most of their fighter ships, but he was wrong as he turned a corner, and there were at least ten more waiting for him. His family watched in horror as Leo made no attempt to move or get out of the way, several laser beams hit the ship and it exploded, sending Leo flying out into space. His space helmet was intact which made Donnie much less nervous, in fact, Donnie almost let out a sigh of relief. The sigh would have to be postponed however, because they all saw the helmet crack, and then break.

"LEO!" They all shouted simultaneously. They all tried to get to him, but they were suddenly hit by a missile the Triceratons had launched at them. It sent them spiralling down towards the surface of Mars, everyone was panicking, even the Fugitoid, but the Professor quickly rebooted the engines and got them flying again. They quickly headed over to Leo and picked him up in the tractor beam. Once he was safely onboard, Donnie rushed to him to see if he was even still alive. He scanned him with his medical tools and he determined that his heart wasn't beating. Quickly Donnie charged the portable defibrillator.

"Everyone stand back" Donnie said as he pressed the button that delivered the shock to Leo. It was only a moment before Leo shot up, obviously alive again.

Leo was still kind of unconscious and mumbled "Kira?". His brothers looked at each other sadly.

"Leo! You're back!" Mikey exclaimed as he jumped in front of him.

"You gotta chill out man! Enough with the crazy suicidal one man missions!" Raph shouted, rattled by the fear of losing his brother.

"Sorry guys" Leo said drowsily, suddenly he was embraced by Raph.

"Just don't do that again" Raph said in Leo's ear.

Donnie joined the group huge and said "I'm just glad you're alive Leo".

"Come on, there's no time. Help me get to the bridge, we have to stop M-Mozar" Leo said, struggling to stand. Raph and Donnie helped him to the bridge. Once they got there, they went full speed ahead for Earth.

"There's still a chance we can save Earth right?" Casey asked, concerned.

"Well, we will arrive approximately five minuets earlier than I did last time... Five minuets ain't bad" Fugitoid said.

"Are you crazy?! Five minuets isn't enough time! I don't get it, we had all those pieces, why didn't we just drop them into a star when we had the chance?" Leo said angrily

"I designed the generator so it was only vulnerable to a combination of fusion and dark matter! So, if you will calm down and let me-!" The Professors angry rant was interrupted by Donnie.

"Uh guys... Look!" Donnie said while pointing to a screen that showed what was going on down on Earth. It showed the black hole generator being charged. They all watched with fear, "The Triceratons are ready to use the black hole generator again!" Donnie told them.

"Hey guys zoom in on that!" Mikey said as he pointed to an area of space, "Is that you guys coming to rescue me?" Mikey asked as he watched the stealth ship swerve around the triceratons battle ships, but suddenly, the mothership fired off a huge laser that blew up the stealth ship.

"Ahhhh! You got blown up!" Mikey shouted in horror.

"Mikey, we had a teleported" Donnie told him, this calmed him down.

A few moments passed before Professor Honeycutt spoke, "Okay, here's my plan. You will all go down to Earth to aid your past selves in stopping the black hole generator from being used, while I will wait in the ship, and grab it in my tractor beam" he told them.

"So you drop us off on Earth and fly off with the generator alone? Not a chance" Leo said, still uneasy about the Professors motives.

"I can sense you're hiding something from us Professor... You're lying to us" April said, she really wanted to trust the Professor, but something didn't add up.

"Cough it up Fuge, what's the deal yo?" Casey asked as he began to walk to wards the Fugitoid with his hockey stick out in front of him.

"There is no 'deal'. It is imperative that you follow my exact plan... Without question!" The Fugitoid stated.

"No. We're going to Earth Professor, and you're coming with us" Raph said angrily. Leo was right not to trust him.

"No, I am not. And if you will not implement my plan, then you are no longer wanted on this ship" Fugitoid said as alarms began going off around them. Suddenly, the floor opened up beneath them and they found themselves hurtling towards the ground. Just before they hit the pavement, the tractor beam from the ship stopped them, everyone breathed out a sigh of relief, but then they were dropped onto the ground. As they all got up, Donnie noted their surroundings.

"Let's move guys! Washington Square is right around the corner" Donnie said as they all began to run quickly towards the fight. They got there just in time to help their past selves. At first, the turtles in the past were confused, but they took the help, wherever it may have come from. Soon, the Triceratons began to fall more quickly, but the timer was running out. Splinter ran and reached out to stop it, but he didn't notice the Shredder was right on his heels.

"Master Splinter! No!" Leo shouted out. However, this time Splinter did not fall to the Shredder. Splinter grabbed the Shredders arm.

"I knew you were a Snake, but you would really stop me from saving the world?!" Splinter said, appalled at the Shredders actions.

"It is because of you and your son that Karai is gone!" The Shredder roared at him. This made Splinter slightly confused, only one of his sons? They fought on for a few minutes before Saki spoke again, "I will rid the world of a vile monster!"

"The only monster here is you Saki" Splinter said as he continued to have the upper hand in the fight. The Shredders knees weakened and he fell as he laughed.

"Oh Splinter... You have no idea what pain I have inflicted upon your son" The Shredder teased, trying to get Splinter to become angry, to lose control.

Splinter furrowed his brows, "What are you speaking of Saki?" he demanded.

"Why don't you ask Leonardo what I did to Akirihai?" The Shredder said, smiling evilly. Splinter did not grace that with a response as he ended the fight with a strong blow to Saki's head. Splinter headed back towards his sons to see if they needed further aid. He was not quite sure what had happened, but there were now two sets of his sons. Splinter got back just to see the fight come to an end. He approached his futuristic sons who all ran to him and embraced him as if they hadn't seen him in a lifetime.

Suddenly, a large white spaceship descended from the sky, and began to lift the black hole generator from the fountain.

"No! Fugitoid's got the generator! It's what he wanted all along!" Leo shouted in anger.

"I-I get it now" Donnie said hesitantly, "He said that the only way to destroy the generator was a combination of dark matter and fission... The ship runs on dark matter, and the Fugitoid is powered by a fission core" Donnie said.

"That's why he wanted us off the ship... He didn't want to steal it... He's sacrificing himself" Leo said sadly. Mikey finally understood.

"No! Fugitoid! Don't do it!" Mikey shouted out over the comm system so that the Professor could hear him in the ship.

"It had to be this way my friends... If you had known, you would have surely tried to stop me... And for that I thank you" The Fugitoid said sadly to his friends. "Let it be known that you are my friends, and I love you all". The turtles watched as the ship was destroyed in one glorious flash of light, and their friend with it. Leo watched in deja vous as he was yet again helpless to save someone he cared about, he was also sad that in the last moments he spent with his friend he was doubting him. He wished he could say to the Professor that he trusted him.

"I do not fully understand what has transpired here today, but I thank my sons, both present and future" Splint spoke as he stepped forward.

"Soooo... What are we going to do about this? The Earth isn't big enough for two Casey Jones'" Future Casey said. Suddenly, they heard a whirring noise and as they looked, they saw Professor Honeycutt's ship landing in front of them. The door to the ship opened, and there stood the Fugitoid.

"Hello my dear friends, my name is Professor Zayton Honeycutt. How would you like to go on a wondrous adventure?" He asked the past turtles. They all looked at each other and then simultaneously voiced their thoughts about how cool it was going to be, or how awesome this was. They began to pile into the space ship.

"Space is great you guys, and if there's one person in the universe you can trust, it's the Professor" Leo said looking up to the Fugitoid.

"Why thank you Leonardo" Fugitoid said, "Perhaps we'll all meet again, in the future". The past turtles hugged Master Splinter goodbye and left to go on an amazing journey.

"I think we must talk about this!" Splinter shouted after his sons, but to no avail. The ship took off and blinked off into space.

"Man have I got some stories for you pal" Raph said to Slash.

"I would also like to hear some stories" Master Splinter said to Leo.

"Maybe later Sensei, right now... I need some sleep" Leo said as they began their walk home.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine - Home is where the heart is

* * *

Yesterday was the day they saved their home from the Triceratons, but today was the day they had to explain everything that had happened before. Mikey had made them all breakfast, and they would begin telling their stories, but first Master Splinter pulled Leo aside.

"Leonardo... Yesterday when I was battling with the Shredder, he said something that I did not know the meaning of" Splinter began looking at Leo's face, which immediately darkened. "He told me to ask you what he did to Akirihai".

As soon as her name left Splinters mouth Leo turned away from him and clenched his fists, this greatly concerned Splinter.

"Leonardo... Who is this woman?" Splinter asked gently.

"She was a friend" Leo replied sadly, "She was my friend and I-" Leo cut himself off, "They'll tell you when we talk about what happened in space" Leo said looked out towards his brothers.

"Why can you not tell me yourself?" Splinter said confused.

"Because I don't want to talk about it" Leo said. Leo began to walk out of the room, into the main living area when Splinter said something in Japanese to him. Leo thought he said 'Why did you never tell me?'. Leo ignored him, he would find out soon enough.

When Splinter and Leo came out of the dojo and into the living area, they began to tell the stories of their adventures in space.

Leo started recounting the story first. "Okay... Where do I begin? We were fighting off the Triceratons, and you went to reach for the button that would stop the generator from going off, but the Shredder came up from behind you and stabbed you in the back. We watched you die, and then the world began to fall into itself, but Professor Honeycutt came just in time to save us. He had a way to go back in time so that we would have another chance at saving the Earth" Leo started.

"So the first thing we needed was to repair the ship, so we went to a space port where we caused some trouble and encountered Lord Dregg. He attacked us and we got our shells handed to us, but the Fugitoid had finished repairing the ship, so we escaped" Donnie said.

"Then we saw the Triceratons, and they shot us out of the sky, and we landed on this moon with these other aliens who turned out to be super cool. We worked together to repair our ship, and then Raph and Mona kissed and it was nasty!" Mikey said and Raph blushed.

"Who is this Mona Raphael?" Splinter asked him.

"She's his girlfriend!" Mikey said loudly for Raph, who was blushing even more.

"Is this true Raphael?" Splinter asked.

"Yes" Raph said, embarrassed.

"Okay, continue" Splinter said.

"So then we found this crazy ship where we found this weird dude named Wyrm who granted Casey three wishes. And then Leo and Donnie almost died cause Wrym was crazy" Mikey said.

"Then Lord Dregg's bounty hunter Arrmagon found us and we hid in an abandoned space station, but there was an evil computer that tried to kill us, but Donnie stopped it" Raph said.

"After that we went out to find the first piece of the black hole generator. We had to go on this planet that made us all kinda evil, but April snapped us ou of it. We beat the Triceratons to the piece, and we hauled our shells off that planet" Mikey said.

"Then these tiny aliens called Neutrinos entered Mikey's mind and tried to erase him, so we went inside his head and got rid of them. But then they all thought it would be a good idea to go into the rest of our heads, so we did that.. And ummm... Raph?" Leo said as he got up to leave.

"Leo where are you going dude?" Mikey asked.

"I'm just going to grab some pictures, go ahead and tell Splinter what happened next" Leo told them as he walked to his bedroom.

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I think we should talk about that last" Donnie said, "It's kind of more of a family thing, less about space". Raph and Mikey nodded in agreement with Donnie, Splinter furrowed his brows, what was going on here? Leo cam back out into the living room with a small silver box.

"We decided we would talk about that last... You know, because it's rally sad" Mikey said. This confused Splinter even more.

"Where did we leave off? Oh yeah right, then we got captured by the Triceratons and we had to fight in this crazy battle arena while April, Casey and Fugitoid grabbed the black hole piece and rescued us. After that, we had to go to the weird Utrom council to find out where the last pieces of the generator were" Raph said.

"Then we went into this cosmic ocean where the next piece was. We had to prove ourselves worthy to Hiidalra, but then Arrmagon came back and we were deemed unworthy by this giant sea creature that tried to eat us, but then we saved the Queen from Lord Dreggs minions" Leo said.

"Yeah, but you did that by taking a blaster shot to the chest that could've killed you!" Raph exclaimed, still not over how overly sacrificey Leo had been on that trip.

"Well it worked didn't it?" Leo said, and Splinter could see a faint scar that wasn't there before, he assumed that was from the incident they were speaking of. "Anyways, then we somehow got sent to some sort of alternate dimension and we had to stop their version of Kraang from destroying all of us" Leo said.

"Oh yeah! That was really weird! That was also the day we saw you Master Splinter" Mikey added.

"Yes... I remember that day" Splinter said, "I knew something was off".

"After we defeated the Kraangs, then we were attacked by the triceratons. But luckily, I was able to give the Fugitoid some new upgrades and saved us all" Donnie said proudly.

"Then Raph's girlfriend Mona lead us into a trap. But she only did it because she had to, Lord Dregg was going to attack her home world, but Raph thought she betrayed him, so he didn't really do much that entire time, and kinda almost got us all killed. It turned out fine though, we escaped and headed off towards the last piece of the black hole generator" Mikey said.

"We went to a lava planet where the last piece was, but Lord Dregg and Arrmagon got in our way, and the Triceratons ended up getting the last piece, and stealing the other two from us" Leo said.

"We raced back towards Earth, and the Professor told us that it was he who created the black hole generator, not the Kraang like he told us. Leo kind of flipped out about that one, and he went on some crazy suicide mission where he did actually die for a bit" Donnie said.

"What?!" Splinter said alarmed.

"Well... I was only dead for like what? 3, 4 minutes? Donnie?" Leo said trying to calm down Splinter.

"More like six" Donnie said, Leo shrugged.

"Anyways... They saved me, and we went back to Earth, and well... you know the rest" Leo finished. There was a brief moment of silence before Leo spoke again. "Now, lets get onto the thing I can tell you're all itching to talk about" Leo said as he slid the box into the middle of the circle.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten - Falling to pieces

* * *

Leo slid the box into the middle of the circle, and at first no one touched it.

"Okay, seriously you guys" Leo huffed in annoyance as he reached in and opened the box himself and carefully dumped the contents onto the floor. In it there were a lot of pictures that looked like they had been printed from a polaroid camera, two CDs, a letter, and a necklace. The CDs were labeled 'Ambush at the apartment' and 'Shots With Leo'. Splinter picked up a picture, on the bottom was written ' _Star Trek Marathon, April 10th_ 2014'. The picture showed Kira resting her head on Leo's shoulder, her arm can be seen reaching up to take the picture. Leo's head was resting on hers and they were both smiling widely. Splinter grabbed another picture, this one was labeled ' _Halloween'_. Kira was dressed as Electra and Leo was standing beside her.

Splinter looked up as the TV popped to life, it was a shaky video camera, there was a click, and suddenly the camera was steadied, they could see Leo standing in a kitchen and out from the corner of the camera Kira walked towards Leo. On the island there were two shot glasses and two slices of lime.

"Tell me why we're doing this again?" Leo in the video asked.

"Because Leo, you're 18 now, and when your friends turn 18 you usually go out and drink at bar, but but obviously we can't, so we are doing vodka shots here and now" Kira said as she poured the clear liquid into the glasses. "Okay... so, down the shot, then eat the lime. Three... Two... One!" Kira shouted and they both did the shots. They both immediately recoiled and ran to the sink to rinse their mouths.

"Oh! It burns!" Kira shouted as she stumbled into Leo who caught her. She leaned in slightly, and it looked like she was maybe about to kiss him, but her phone rang.

"Call from 212-343-6565" The robotic caller ID said.

"That's my father" Kira said as she stepped away from him to answer the phone, before she picked up she put her finger to her lips to motion that Leo needed to be silent.

"Yes?" Kira answered, it was on speaker phone.

"Akirihai, I have a job for you, 5 O'clock sharp" The Shredder said as he hung up. Kira stood there frozen for a moment before dropping the phone, Leo caught it and put a hand on her shoulder while placing the phone in the counter.

"You don't have to do it Kira" Leo said.

"If I don't do it he'll kill me..." Kira paused, "Maybe I should let him".

"Don't say that, you know that if you don't kill whoever it is, he'll just send someone else to do it" Leo told her.

Kira just sighed and nodded, "I'm going to sleep, you're welcome to join me" Kira said.

"No, I should probably get back home" Leo said as he walked in front of her, he kissed her forehead.

"Goodnight Leo" Kira said.

"Goodnight Kira" Leo responded. Kira walked towards the camera and turned it off. The video ended.

Leo took out that CD, and put in the one labeled 'Ambush in the apartment'.

It was a black and white security camera footage of Kira's bedroom. She was sleeping under the covers, until she suddenly shot up and reached under her pillow and grabbed something, it was a gun.

"Leo?" She called out while opening the door out into the hallway, a shadow moved behind her, but she didn't see it in time, she turned around just in time to have her shoulder cut by the blade. She quickly raised the gun and perfectly hit her target. There was a rustling sound from the hallway, Kira fought off the pain and raised the gun up high as she went out into the hall and tried to make her way towards the living room where she kept her katana. She fired off two more shots on her way to the living room, but when she got there she found the Shredder sitting at the kitchen table. Kira lowered her gun, but never dropped her finger from the trigger. Kira also noticed that Karai was sitting at the island.

"Not that I don't enjoy the impromptu family visit slash assassination attempt, but what the hell are you doing in my house?" Kira asked them warily, her shoulder was bleeding quite a bit, and she could feel her energy begin to drain.

"We know about your... extracurricular activities Akirihai" Karai spat out.

Kira's eyes widened in horror, thinking that they meant Leo, "I-I can explain, just don't hurt him" Kira said desperately.

"Too late, they are all dead. You thought you could hide the fact that you went against my orders to kill them?" The Shredder said with satisfaction, tears welled up in Kira's eyes. The Shredder studied her for a moment, "I didn't know that you were so attached to that Japanese business man" he commented.

"No one deserves to be ruthlessly hunted and murdered" Kira said, obviously trying to keep in her relieved expression hidden.

"What did you say earlier?" Karai asked.

"What do you mean?" Kira said, she had hoped they hadn't heard her.

"You said someone's name, who was it, it sounded kind of like L-"

"Hello" Kira interrupted, Karai raised an eyebrow at her defensiveness. "I said hello" Kira wobbled a little on her feet and clutched her shoulder. The Shredder stood up and walked over to her.

"If you do anything like this again, I will not be so kind... now bow to me" The Shredder commanded.

" _I will not bow to a monster"_ Kira said in Japanese. The Shredder slapped her, which sent Kira stumbling back, she fell against a wall. The Shredder glanced one more time at her, and then the foot ninjas, Karai and the Shredder left through the window. The camera footage skips forwards 5 hours.

Leo comes in through the window, but he pauses when he sees mud and blood staining the carpet in the living room, he turned around the corner cautiously, and he saw Kira sitting at the island. Her shirt is covered in blood, and he noticed the gun beside her.

"Kira..." Leo said softly as he approached her, not wanting to startle her, "What happened?". Leo noticed an empty two litre jug of apple juice next to her.

"He tried to kill me" Kira said, she still didn't turn to face him. "He sent ninjas to kill me in my sleep".

"I'll kill him" Leo said, full of rage.

"Leo, wait... Please stay here" Kira said. Leo stopped and walked around the kitchen so that he could face her, and he was shocked by the state she was in. There was dried blood splattered on her face, her clothes were drenched with it, but her didn't notice that any of it was hers. He walked around and placed a hand on the top of her shoulder, meaning to comfort her, but she cried out in pain.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Leo asked, and she quickly nodded.

"My shoulder..." Kira said as she pulled down her shirt so he could see. It was quite a deep cut, and it still seemed to be bleeding.

"Kira, I think you should go to a hospital" Leo said looking at it.

"No. They'll ask me what happened, and I can't answer that question" Kira said. "Ca you stitch it?" She asked.

"I don't know Kira... This one is a lot worse than the cuts I usually stitch up for you" Leo said.

"Do it or I will" Kira said.

Leo sighed, "Fine". The video fast forwarded Leo stitching up her shoulder and carrying her to her room.

"Goodnight Leo" Kira said sleepily.

"Goodnight Kira..." Leo said, he looked like he was about to say something else, but he just left.

The video ended.

"This woman seems to have amazing pain tolerance" Splinter commented, but he was still confused. "When can we meet this woman?" he asked, but immediately he realized what had happened based on his sons reactions.

Raph clenched his fists, Mikey looked down sadly, Donnie watched Leo, and Leo looked down and closed his eyes. Splinter's eyes widened in shock.

"What happened?" Splinter said softly. At this point Leo had had enough and left the lair, no one made any move to stop him.

"What happened to her my sons?" Splinter asked the rest of them.

"The day we lost New York... The Shredder ambushed them" Donnie started.

"Yeah, and then he made Leo watch as he murdered her, then Leo tried to attack him, but the Shredder was too strong. I'm just glad he didn't kill him too" Raph said.

"The only reason Leo isn't dead right now is because of Kira" Mikey said, the others turned to look at him, wanting an explanation to the statement. "I mean, think about it... Why wouldn't he have killed Leo? He wanted Leo to live with the pain of knowing she was dead. He gave Leo cuts deep enough to make scars that would never go away to make sure that he would never forget that night. That's why he didn't wake up from the coma he was in for two months, because he didn't want to live... That's why he always does the risky things, he stays behind to slow them down while we get away, because he just wants to die. He told me so himself" Mikey said sadly. A silence fell over the room as every one of them realized that Mikey was right.

"We should go after him" Donnie said. Everyone nodded in agreement, "I think I know where he'll go".

They quickly made their way out of the lair, and headed towards Kira's apartment. They went in through the open window and saw Leo sitting at the kitchen table with the unopened letter from the box in front of him. They all sat around him and stared at the letter like he was. On the front was _Leo_ written in perfect handwriting.

"Are you going to open it?" Mikey asked from beside Leo. Leo didn't respond, but he grabbed the letter and carefully opened the sealed envelope. He began to read it, and a bittersweet smile appeared on his face, when he was done he left the letter on the table, an open invitation to read it.

"I'm going home" Leo said as he jumped out the window onto the fire escape.

They all looked at the letter, unsure if they wanted to read it, but Donnie grabbed it and began to read it out loud.

"Dear Leo,  
What shoes do ninjas wear? Sneakers. Get it? Because we're sneaky. I hope you appreciate that pun, because if you're reading this it means you either snuck into my room while I was writing it, or that I died. I really hope that you didn't have to see it happen, and I am really sorry if you did. I'm sorry for a lot of things, I know that we both thought that we would be together for a long time, so I'm sorry I took that away from you. I'm also sorry that now you have nowhere to go to when you're tired of being around your family, but you can come to the apartment as much as you want. I have a debit card with $50,000 dollars on it in the top drawer of my dresser, please use it for you and your family. Most of all, I regret never really expressing how much I love you in words. I know we've had several nights of passion and romance, but I've never said the words out loud. You haven't either, so don't be angry or remorseful, because I know. You told me once that being in love is more than just saying the words, and you were right.  
Lastly, I want to give you a final piece of advise. When you feel alone, when you feel that no one else understands, you're wrong. There is always someone, you showed me that.  
I want you to know that you are not fearless, and you are not perfect, and you are not alone. But I love you, and your family loves you. My family hates me, you are everything I have, and that was enough, so you should definitely be covered.  
No words can describe how much you mean to me Leo,  
-Kira"

Donnie finished.

"What do you think she meant by 'several nights of passion and romance'? Mikey asked innocently.


	11. Chapter 11

Authors Note: Thanks for all the reads and reviews and follows and favourites! So now I'm going to take a stab at my most favourite story arch from the 2003 TMNT series with the 2012 series characters. I hope you enjoy it, and if you haven't seen the Ninja tribunal story arch, you can go to and watch it for free. It starts on the last episode of season 4, and goes through the entire 5th season. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Eleven - A world we never knew

* * *

A few days later, Splinter and Leo sat in the dojo meditating, but there was something troubling Leo, and Splinter could sense it.

"My son, what seems to be troubling you?" Splinter asked.

Leo opened his eyes and looked at his father, "I've had these strange... dreams" Leo spoke hesitantly.

"And what are these dreams about?" Splinter asked him curiously.

"It always starts with us fighting moving trees, and then they take us on a boat where we go to a large island, and then I see five pedestals, but one is empty. Then I see us climbing a mountain..." Leo trailed off, but Splinter could tell there was more.

"What is the rest?"

"Well, then I see the four elements all converging into one person, and they form Kira... But she isn't the same, she has black eyes, and then I-then I" Leo shook his head, "It doesn't matter".

"It may" Splinter said, but he didn't want to pressure Leo into talking about it if he didn't want to.

"Well, I see myself killing her, and just as she is about to die her eyes turn back to normal" Leo said.

Leo had a haunted expression on his face that concerned Splinter, "Well, my son, you have always had an affinity for seeing what has not yet happened, but in this instance, I think it is just a nightmare" Splinter said. Immediately Leo relaxed, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.

"Hey Leo, should we go out on patrol?" Donnie called from the living area.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be right there" Leo shouted back. Leo stood and bowed to Master Splinter and then walked out of the room to join his brothers. They exited the lair and went to the rooftops of New York, it was around 2 or 3 am when Leo began to get a feeling like they were being watched.

* * *

*Back at the lair

After his sons left, Splinter decided to meditate more on what Leonardo had told him, and it was only after a few minutes that he saw the vision Leonardo was speaking of.

Splinter watched from above as his sons fought off men made of wood, they fought hard, but no matter what they did, their opponents would not relent, and they were overtaken. The wooden men took his sons, and darkness descended on them. It was only a moment later when light shined through the clouds and rested upon the deck of a large ship. His sons and four other humans stood on board, trying to see through the dense fog that shrouded the way ahead. Suddenly, they way cleared of fog, and they saw land, it was Japan. They walked up a long, steep hill, and finally reached what looked like a temple. They approached large wooden doors that creaked open, inside there were five seats, but only four were filled, one woman and three men. Suddenly it was raining, and they were no longer in the temple, but in the middle of a forest, there were four elementals, beings of immense power, they were chanting around a woman, Kira. She sat up and smiled an evil smile, and her eyes turned black and she spoke with a voice that was not her own, it was deeper, darker. Splinter saw Leo fight her, and it was obvious he was no match for her, so he kissed her, which surprised her and drove a dagger into her stomach. She fell to the ground and he fell with her, her black eyes disappeared and she whispered, "Leo?", before dying. Leonardo screamed in anguish and the vision was over.

Splinter's eyes shot open, he knew he had seen the dream Leonardo described. Although he doubted that Leonardo had seen it in such detail, he could not dispute the fact that something inside him screamed danger. Splinter stood up and followed his sons immediately, however, he didn't know where they had gone, and it had been almost half an hour since they had left. Panic took hold of Splinter as he raced out of the sewers.

* * *

Leo felt eyes on them and motioned for them to stop. "Guys, stop... We're being watched" Leo told them. Immediately they stopped, Leo was always right when it came to this sort of thing.

Suddenly, four cloaked men leaped from the surrounding rooftops and landed on the corners of the roof that they were standing on, the strange men drew their weapons. One had sais like Raphael, another had katanas like Leo, the other had nunchakus like Mikey and the last one had a bo staff like Donnie. The cloaked warriors matched up with the turtle that had the opposite weapon as them, so the one with the sai fought Leo, the one with the katana fought Raph, the one with the bo staff fought Mikey, and the one with the nunchakus fought Donnie. As the fight began, they soon realized that their masked opponents were much more skilled than them. It seemed like every one of their strikes did not do anything to hinder the cloaked men. They were unsure as to why that was until Leo cut one of their heads off.

Leo had an opportunity, he usually didn't want to execute lethal blows, but he needed to help his brothers who he could see were struggling just as much as he was, so he took the chance, and aimed for his head. What happened next was unexpected, Leo's sword cut through its neck and took off its head. The first thing that Leo noticed was wrong was that there was no blood, the next was that his opponents body seemed to be made of wood. Also, it wasn't dead, Leo's moment of shock was used to the wooden mans advantage, and Leo received a solid blow to the chest, which sent him flying into the wall where he hit his head and was knocked unconscious.

"Leo!" His brothers cried out, but their momentary distraction lead to their defeat as well, and only a few seconds later all the turtles were unconscious. The wooden men picked them up and jumped over the roof tops and into the night.

By the time Splinter arrived at the scene of the battle, it had been almost an hour since the wooden men had taken the turtles. Splinter saw all of his sons weapons on the ground and he found a wooden block that had Leonardo's katana imbedded into it. Splinter thought back to the vision he had had, and now he realized that if he wanted to save his sons, he would need help from an old friend.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve - Brave new world

* * *

Leo groggily opened his eyes. He woke up on a pile of straw in a wooden room with a large door at the front of it, Mikey Donnie and Raph were just starting to stir.

Raph groaned, "Where are we?" He asked.

"I don't know" Leo responded as he examined the door, he pushed on it, and it didn't move, but as soon as he turned his back the door swung open. They looked at each other and shrugged as they walked out into the hallway, the floor was covered in beautiful hand woven carpets, and the walls were painted with the history of Japan.

"Uh... Is it just me, or are our weapons floating?" Mikey said as he pointed towards the wall where their weapons were in fact floating. Raph shrugged and grabbed his sais, his brothers followed suit and for a moment nothing happened, until four more doors down the hall opened, and four humans immerged from them. Out of the first one there came a large man with huge muscles, he was dressed in orange and he was bald. From the second door there came a blond woman dressed in all green. Next there was a Japanese man who had long black hair and was dressed in traditional Japanese robes. Lastly there was an African man who was very athletic looking and was wearing some sort of leather armour. They all paused a moment to look strangely at the turtles, before going to grab their own weapons.

"Are you the ones who kidnapped us?" The woman asked them.

"No! Dudes, we got kidnapped too" Mikey said, and it seemed to make the humans relax.

"What are you?" The large man in orange asked.

"That's kind of a long story... But my name is Leonardo, this is Raphael, this is Donatello, and this is Michelangelo" Leo said.

"Greetings Leonardo, I am Joy" The woman said.

"The name's Adam" The large man in the orange said.

"Hello, I am Faraji" The African man told them.

"I'm Tora" The Japanese man said.

"Well, I say we find out what the shell is going on here" Raph said.

"You're welcome to follow us" Leo said to the others as they began to walk down the long hallway. It seemed as if they were walking forever when they finally reached a large wooden door, they all glanced at each other before all pushing against it, it took a lot of strength, but it finally creaked open. It revealed a huge open room, an at the end of it there were five chairs raised on platforms. Only four out of the five chairs were being sat in, but what was more concerning was their appearance. They all seemed to be wearing armour that was almost identical to the Shredders armour, one was wearing green, one was wearing orange, and the other two were both wearing similar blue and silver.

"Welcome acolytes, you stand before the Ninja Tribunal" A female voice spoke from inside the green armour. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, yet with interest.

"We have summoned you all here today because the world is facing a threat like no other before" A male voice spoke from the right of the green woman.

"We need warriors that are trained in mind, body and soul, and we have chosen you" The woman spoke again.

"But we only need the best of you" The same man said.

"Fight each other, and may the strongest win" The woman said again.

"What?!" They all cried at the same time. They looked at each other in confusion.

"I do not want to fight you" Faraji spoke.

"Me neither" Leo said, they all lowered their weapons and turned back to the Tribunal.

"If you will not fight each other, fight for your loved ones. Joy, your sister in Bermuda, Tora, your wife in Nagasaki, Faraji, your daughter in Miami. Turtles, the rat master you call father, and Leonardo, Kira in New York" The woman spoke.

"Well, you're about two and a half years too late with that one" Leo said eyes darkening with rage. The humans turned to look at him in confusion.

"Fight for the safety of your loved ones" The same man said. The so called acolytes turned to face each other as they drew their weapons. They began to circle each other, but they had no want to fight.

"I have no wishes to fight you Michelangelo" Tora said to Mikey.

"Yeah, me neither dude! And why should we trust these guys? Aren't they the ones that kidnapped us in the first place?" Mikey said, and everyone seemed to agree with him.

"Maybe we should stop fighting each other, and start by getting some answers out of these bozos" Raph said, lowering his sais. The others followed his lead and lowered their weapons, and they all turned to the Tribunal.

"Congratulations, you have passed the first test" The man said.

"The first of many, we approach our destination. Take this time to reflect on all you have seen and done today" The woman said as a staircase revealed itself. The turtles and their newfound friends climbed up and saw something amazing.

* * *

*Back at the lair*

Splinter went into the dojo and began meditating, he needed to reach the astral plain to communicate with an old friend who was known as the ancient one. Once he entered the astral plane, he mentally searched for the ancient one and found him almost immediately.

"Hello Yoshi-San" A voice spoke in Splinters head, it was him.

"Hello Ancient One... I bring dire news. My sons have been taken by the Ninja Tribunal" Splinter said.

"How is that possible? I thought their existence was a well kept secret" the Ancient One replied.

"Many things have changed since the last time I have spoken with you... But you need to bring me to The Lap Of The Gods, so that I may rescue my sons from the Tribunal" Splinter said. There was no immediate response, but it was much to ask on Splinters part. The location of the Tribunal was difficult to reach, one could only get there by spiritual strength, something that Splinter knew he did not have enough of to get there alone.

"I do not know if this is the most wise course of action Splinter-San" The Ancient One said.

"I will not allow my sons to be used by the Tribunal like my father was" Splinter said with conviction.

"*Sigh* Fine. I will get to New York as soon as I can" The Ancient One said, "But you must promise me you will not make any rash decisions".

"Yes. Thank you my friend" Splinter said gratefully.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: In the lap of the gods

* * *

The turtles and the humans Tora, Adam, Faraji and Joy, were standing near the bow of the ship. As the heavy fog that shrouded their way began to clear, mountains came into view, and a large dock appeared.

"Woah!" everyone gasped.

"Is that... Japan?" Donnie asked in amazement.

"I think it is" Joy said.

Raph saw that Leo didn't seem excited, which he found odd considering Leo had always talked about wanting to go to Japan, Raph supposed this was about the tribunal's comment about Kira.

"Hey... Is he okay?" Faraji asked Raph as he came to stand beside him.

"Yeah, he's okay, it's just... the girl that the tribunal mentioned, she died a while ago, and Leo doesn't like to think about it".

* * *

*Flashback*

Kira was reading a book when Leo came in through the window, she smiled and looked up at him.

"You have blue eyes" he said. She furrowed her brows at him.

"Yes I do, so do you" she said, giving him a weird look.

"I-no I didn't mean- like... I thought you were very Japanese is all"

"Well I'm sorry I culturally disappoint you"

"Oh no! Kira I'm sorry, I-" he was stopped by her laughter.

"It's fine Leo I was just playing with you. My mom was German, she must've had blue eyes" she told him, still smiling widely.

"Do you know much about your mother?" Leo asked.

"Not much really, good ol' dad doesn't talk to me much, let alone about the one night stand that created me. Though when I was in Japan a while back, an old friend of my dad told me that he had been really surprised when I was left at his doorstep because he couldn't remember being with anyone for quite some time" Kira shrugged, "He probably was flying to America, had a layover in Germany, got uber drunk and batta boom batta bing, baby!"

* * *

That memory was brought up to his head as he watched the bright blue sea swell around the ship, it was nearly the same colour as Kira's eyes had been before. Leo was shocked out of his thoughts by Donnie who patted him had on the back and told him that it was time to get off the boat.

The tribunal came up to the deck of the ship, "Acolytes, we have arrived at the lap of the gods, ascend the mountain, and do so with haste, for your burdens are heavy."

Heavy burdens? Donnie thought it was some sort of cryptic message, that was until there were large backpacks dumped at their feet. They started their journey up the stairs, once they were about half way up they saw that the boat they had arrived on was now flying upwards and passing them.

"Typical" Raph muttered as they continued their slow ascent of the mountain. Eventually, just as the sun began to fall, they reached the top of the mountain, and were met with a mystical little village. It was really quite beautiful, but it was strange, there were no people. They spotted a large monastery near the centre of the small village and began to make their way to the building, assuming that that was where they would meet the tribunal.

As they entered a deep voice resounded throughout the room, "Welcome, acolytes, to the lap of the gods."

"Sit, time is short, an ancient evil is rising that the world has not seen for a thousand years" the woman spoke.

"This enemy will fight you on mystical, spiritual and physical planes, you must be prepared to fight back. I am Kon-shisho, ninjitsu master of spirit." he paused, "This is Juto-shisho ninjitsu master of weapons, Chikara-shisho, ninjitsu master of strength, and this is Hisomi-shisho, ninjitsu master of stealth."

"Your training begins now." Chikara spoke as large doors to an even larger library opened to them.

"Leonardo-san, we would like to speak to you, wait here" Kon spoke after, Raph looked concerned, but Leo motioned for him to go, so he did, grudgingly. Once the others had left, the doors closed, leaving Leo alone with the tribunal.

"What you have said troubles us, what do you mean we were too late?" Chikara asked, referring to Kira.

"She's dead, has been for over a year now" Leo told them.

"You must be mistaken young one, we would have felt it" Juto spoke with surprise.

"No, I watched her die. She is gone, and as much as I hope to be wrong, I know I'm not." Leo said sadly, "Wait, what do you mean you would have felt it?"

The members of the tribunal looked at each other before collectively nodding.

"There are things you did not know about her, things she did not even know of herself. Long ago...

*Flashback*

A girl ran through the crowded market in an ancient Japanese city, she was picking peoples pockets, she did it nearly completely unnoticed, her stealth and agility were remarkable for someone of her age with no training. A silent figure watched her from afar as she was caught by some older boys, they cornered her in a small alcove of the market where there wasn't anyone to witness what they would do to her.

"What should we do with this thief?" the leader asked the other two.

"I dunno, maybe we should hurt her hands, and see how she does her thieving with two broken hands." The leader grinned.

"I like that plan Daiki, but look, she has strange eyes, I've never seen anyone with blue eyes, my parents say that they are demons."

"What if we cut out her eyes, maybe it would heal her? We would really be doing her a favor." The previously silent one spoke.

"There! We'll cut out her eyes!" the leader said gleefully.

"You will do no such thing" a man's voice said from behind the boys, he had startled them.

"But sir, she's a thief." the leader argued.

"Be gone! Now!" he raised his voice, and the boys ran off. The man turned his attention to the girl, she looked up to him not with fear but with apprehension. "Do you have a home to go to?" the girl shook her head no. "What about parents?", again no. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at her in contemplation. "Come with me." It wasn't a question. She followed him through the markets until they reached their destination, the place of residence of the 'Five Dragons'. She gasped when she saw where he had lead her.

"Come child." the man said as he held open the door for her to enter, and she did. Once inside she marveled at the grandeur of the décor, there were ancient relics and weapons covering the walls.

"Who is this Saki?" a woman's voice asked from behind them.

"What is your name child?" the man, Saki, asked.

"Akirihai."

*Flashback over*

Leo opened his eyes in shock at what he had just seen, "That was- but she-I"

"You see Leonardo when Oroku Saki turned to the side of darkness, Kira was 16, we all had trained her. Scribes called her the child of dragons, for she was our child, we had raised her and taught her everything we knew, by then she was nearly as skilled as the rest of us. But she always thought of Saki as her father, more than any of the rest of us. For a long time after we did not realize why she had done what she did." Kon spoke.

"What did she do?" Leo asked.

"She sided with him, we had believed that he had corrupted her. When we finally attacked his stronghold, we were still not strong enough to defeat him. He had nearly defeated us when she manifested into the fifth dragon, she saved us, she nearly killed him, but her strength ran out and she fell back into her human form in the middle of the battle, she was killed, but we managed to create a spell of sorts that would reincarnate her when she was most needed again. Her revival was the first indicator that something was wrong." Chikara told him.

Leo's face twisted from confusion to anger. "So you were keeping an eye on her, but you didn't stop the Shredder from torturing her? From killing her?! If she was so important why didn't you protect her?!"

"We could not interfere, it would have changed things in a way that you cannot understand." Juto spoke.

"We are sorry Leonardo, for what happened, for how it happened. She was our family too, and we too had to watch her die." Kon said sadly.

"You have learned much today, rest and reflect. You and the others have training beginning tomorrow" Chikara told him as the doors to the library reopened so he could join the other acolytes.

* * *

Authors Note: Okay, I am so sorry I have not updated in such a long time, I've been very busy with sports and school and music, but now I've gotten into a routine and I should have some more regular updates. Thanks for sticking with me this far! Comments/Reviews are very welcome!


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